A man inspects a copy of the Golden Fresh Land newspaper at a printing press in Rangoon. Photograph: Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP

Privately owned daily newspapers have hit newsstands for the first time in 50 years in Burma, where a state monopoly on the daily press once kept news to a strict minimum, generally by threat of censorship, imprisonment or torture – or all three.

Covering topics from sim card prices to recent religious violence, four dailies went on sale on 1 April – also the first anniversary of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's election to parliament. Twelve more publications will follow suit in the coming months as they work out printing and distribution logistics.

"We've been waiting half a century for this day," said Khin Maung Lay, chief editor of the new daily Golden Fresh Land, whose initial print run of 80,000 copies had sold out by late morning. "It shows how much people long for private daily newspapers. This morning, I was in tears seeing this."

Once home to a vibrant print culture – where daily papers in Burmese, English, Chinese and Indian languages flourished – Burma closed all private daily print production in 1964 under a military junta headed by General Ne Win. For much of the next five decades the country became better known for spying on, censoring, jailing, torturing and seizing equipment of journalists deemed against the state.

The press freedoms are the latest relaxation in a series of reforms that have taken place since President Thein Sein took office in 2011 under a quasi-civilian government. While the changes are mostly political and economic, they have also significantly opened up Burma's press, such as last year's rolling back of pre-publication censorship and the recent opening of an Associated Press bureau in Rangoon, the first foreign news agency to be based in the country.

However, journalists are still subject to strict regulations under the 1962 Printing and Registration Act, which carries a seven-year jail sentence for failing to register – and also allows the government to suspend publishing licences at any time.

Along with Golden Fresh Land, the papers Standard Time Daily, the Voice, (which has now switched from weekly to daily publication) and Union, which is linked to Thein Sein's ruling USDP party, are also available on newsstands, (most distributed for free, while one charges 15p). Many papers had sold out by mid-morning, sources in Rangoon said.

The four papers' coverage ranged dramatically in both content and tone. The Voice led with an update about inter-ethnic violence in Rakhine state, where more than 200 were killed and 115,000 displaced last year after fighting between Rakhine Buddhists and minority Rohingya Muslims, while the Union focused on government news, such as ministerial resignations.

Golden Fresh Land covered Aung San Suu Kyi's impending visit to Japan and Thein Sein's speech on recent Buddhist-Muslim violence in Mandalay, which has so far left more than 40 people dead and forced more than 12,000 to flee.

A further 12 dailies will soon appear, including one from Aung San Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy. There will also be a new Yangon Times and Mizzima Daily, an offshoot of the online news portal Mizzima.

Mizzima's managing editor, Sein Win, : "We would like to make sure [we've created] the best-quality newspaper and taken enough time [with] capacity-building in the editorial room. Apart from that, we would like to wait and see how the market responds to other dailies."

Competition in a market thirsty for information will be an issue for consumers as well as publishers.

"It won't be easy for all the newspapers to survive. As a reader, I can't afford to buy every newspaper, every day," a taxi driver, Tun Win, 52, told AP. "[But] now we can get information every day, rather than once a week. It's the best way to get up-to-date news for those who don't have access to the internet."

Next month will also see the publication of a monthly human rights journal from an exiled Chin news group, whose periodical, with its highly sensitive content, was until now forced to publish from India. "We will focus on news that reflects human rights violations – social and religious abuses – taking place in Chin state, as well as the situation of Chin people living abroad," deputy editor Salai Robert of Khonumthung recently told the Democratic Voice of Burma As for the daily papers now operating out of Yangon, editors say that while the road ahead may not be all smooth, there is no turning back now.

"I foresee several hurdles," said Golden Fresh Land's Khin Maung Lay, 81, who was jailed three times under Ne Win's dictatorship. "However, I am ready to run the paper in the spirit of freedom and professionalism taught by my peers during the good old days."